Call for proposals: data-collection on LGBTI-phobic hate crimes in Europe.

ILGA-Europe announces XVI call for proposals within its Documentation and Advocacy Fund. This call will specifically focus on data-collection of LGBTI-phobic hate crimes supported the government of the Netherlands. Deadline for applications: 8 November 2016, 18:00 CET.

The general goals of the Documentation and AdvocacyFund are

to work towards LGBTI equality by gathering evidence of human rights violations and supporting evidence-based advocacy throughout Europe;

to promote documentation of cases of discrimination, hate crimes and other human rights violations against LGBTI people according to the international human rights documentation standards;

to build capacity of LGBTI organisations in Europe to monitor and document human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression;

to enable the use of well-documented information for advocacy purposes at the national level;

to develop methodology and tools that can be replicated in other European countries for collection of reliable information on human rights violations.

Background information regarding the situations of hate crimes across Europe:

Across Europe, hate crimes against LGBTI people are a widespread and very worrisome phenomenon. Not just in countries that score low on our Rainbow Europe Map, but also in the so-called ‘champions’ of LGBTI rights. In order to have a clear vision on the prevalence and the extent of hate crimes against LGBTI people, ILGA-Europe has been promoting the reporting and the data collection on incidents of hate crime, for many years now. In 2012, we issued our methodology on hate crime reporting, based on international legal standards. In 2013, a first call for proposals was launched, supporting 12 member organisations in Europe to do hate crime reporting.

But we now want to go further, because NGO reporting of hate crimes is extremely important to show the extent of this grave human rights violation and to pressure the authorities to act against it. Indeed, only half of European countries actually have legislation against homophobic hate crimes (26 out of 49 countries). And only 16 countries have legislation against transphobic hate crimes. Reporting is essential to convince the authorities to criminalise these hate crimes and to develop policies and trainings for police and judicial bodies against hate crimes.

The specific goal of this call…

Is to allocate grants to support documentation of incidence of homophobic and transphobic violence in European countries. This data collection call has been devised to feed in ILGA-Europe’s evidence based advocacy strategy in favour of hate crime legislation and policy measures to tackle hate crime. 5 to 8 grants with a maximum of 7,500 € each (total budget of the call: 35,000€) can be supported. The funding will allow the selected applicants to:

Develop the skills to produce good quality and comparable evidence of incidence of violence experienced by LGBTI people;

Produce a report on homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in their country, which will in turn allow ILGA-Europe to compile data at European level at the end of 2017;

Increase the visibility of the issue of homophobic and transphobic violence at national and European levels.

All applicants shall commit to apply the “Guidelines for grantees on how to monitor and report LGBTI-phobic incidents”. These Guidelines provide a framework on how LGBTI-phobic incidents can be monitored and documented. Additional guideline documents may be sent later this year. In addition, the project will include an obligatory training on methodology which is also part of the project, to take place in Brussels early February 2017.

The Guidelines include a glossary, and precise definitions of the types of incidents on which reporting and monitoring are expected, as well as indications on how to describe them and how to assess their homophobic or transphobic prejudiced motivation. They also provide methodology tools to classify and analyse the data collected. Finally, the guidelines provide templates for the redaction of the final report in English (the selected applicants will also be encouraged to produce a version in their national language if useful).

The standardised nature of the proposed Guidelines is justified by ILGA-Europe’s objective to produce consistent and comparable data in various European countries. As a result, applicants are asked to follow the guidelines very closely. Selected applications may need some adjustments to the methodology after the training session.

Applicants shall take into consideration the Timeline included in the Guidelines when preparing their application form.

Historical projects are not eligible.

Eligibility criteria:

Applications from the LGBTI organisations that did not receive support under ILGA-Europe’s Documentation and Advocacy Fund in last 5 years from European region (countries-members of the Council of Europe) are eligibleONLY. List of the eligible countries can be found here. Information about the organisations-grantees of the Fund that were supported in the last 5 years can be found here.

Under this call ILGA-Europe will support documentation methods and reporting techniques which may include on-line reporting, face-to-face interviews or interviews by phone. ILGA-Europe will also support the publication of the report to be produced as a result of the project. At minimal, all projects should include the collection of data and the production of a report on the basis of the data collected.

Application forms shall include a description of the planned activities and of the chosen reporting methodology. Your proposals will be evaluated taking into account the capacity of your organisation to implement the project.

Information on the advocacy plans that your organisation intends to carry out on the basis of the produced report will be considered as an asset for your application. Organizations are also encouraged to demonstrate how this project will support the building of internal documentation skills in relation to homophobic and transphobic hate crimes.

Information on your organisation’s plans to sustain in the long term the reporting and monitoring processes put in place thanks to the grant will be considered as an asset for your application.

Proposals will be accepted from LGBTI organisations officially registered with local authorities or unregistered initiative groups.

The selected applications should:

Provide a clear and specific approach to the data collection and outline what the objectives, added-value and expected outcomes are;

Allow for the documentation of new evidence on homophobic and transphobic hate crimes;

Enhance data collection skills in the area;

Possibly, provide an opportunity for joint work (peer-learning and/or coaching) between different civil society organisations.

The deadline for the XVI call for applications is 8 November 2016, 18.00 CET. Decisions by the Advisory Board on grants awarded will be communicated in early January.

Due to capacity and funding limitations NO applications outside Europe or submitted after the deadline will be accepted.

You can submit your application or ask any questions about the Fund by email.

Be sure to follow the application guidelines EXACTLY. Applications must be made in English. The language of the report and other outputs must be indicated in the proposal. English for all reports is preferred.